<p>My career goal would be to become a drilling and reservoir engineer for a major oil company. My school does not offer a petroleum degree so the only two that seem that they would lead me there are either Mechanical(sense it is so broad), or Chemical. Is one preferred over the other to lead me there? If I didn't really take to statics or mechanics of materials, should I even bother with Mechanical? </p>
<p>I've heard that Chemical is more for downstream and not upstream work. Does that mean MechE is more suited for that work? And that Chemical is more process orientated(they care mostly about the process as a whole)</p>
<p>As a chemical engineer in the petroleum industry, you wouldn’t necessarily be in charge of designing the oil rig setup. You’d be more in charge of processing the crude oil into something that is more usable, namely gasoline. As a mechanical engineer, you might be doing the inverse: designing the setup, but not exactly in charge of processing the oil.</p>
<p>As a petroleum engineer, you’d do both in addition to managing and planning the whole drilling process in the earth.</p>
<p>Which are you more interested in? Ask yourself that.</p>
<p>If you want to be a drilling and/or a reservoir engineer you should probably go to a school that offers petroleum engineering. Otherwise you may not get to do what you want.</p>
<p>Chemical tends to be at the refinery level and mechanical can be anywhere along the path.</p>
<p>Can ME get the refinery process jobs as well? What about the actual finding and deciding on how/where to get the oil, i believe is reservoir engineering? Can ME do that?</p>